Last night some idiot pulled right out in front of me, causing me to break suddenly and decently hard. I didn't hit him. Immediately afterward, my truck has been pulling noticeably to the right, whereas before it slightly pulled to the left. What would cause something like this?

 

Probably have an old, rusty, caliper. Hard braking pushed it out more than usual and now it's a bit stuck and can't retract all the way. They're cheap so best thing to do is replace both sides at once...
my caliper got stuck once and I couldn't pound it back in with a hammer

 

Thanks. One thing I'm concerned about is I have an appointment today in a town that's 16 miles away and the only way to get there is driving down a steep grade that's about two and a half miles long. The steepness of the grade requires one to break frequently to maintain a 65 mile per hour speed since the highway patrol likes to camp out on that hill and try an ale speeders. Do you think I would be okay was something like this?

 

I'd try and avoid the hill if you can. Constant braking + angry brake caliper = overheating. Could risk warping the disc or it full on ceasing up on you. If you absolutely must take the hill i recommend carrying a big screwdriver and the tools to change a tire with. If the brake starts to overheat or cease up take the tire off and pry on the caliper until it compresses the cylinder (if it still moves), you'll get a little more life out of it until you need to brake again. Just keep track of how hard it's pulling and if it get any worse.

 

Automatic? You could drop it into 2nd and coast.

 

@tbugden
i was thinking that too, speed limit is 65 it might be possible to set cruise control at like 45-50mph and engine break down the hill. I've never tried it before and I'm not even sure it'll work, no hills big enough around my area to test it. It'll probably just disengage the TC and coast

 

Cruise won't keep it DOWN, you'll still need to downshift for that.

RwP

 

I got the truck back; it turns out the control arm was loose and simply needed to be tightened up. At least, that's what my mechanic said. Just thought I'd give an update in case anybody else eventually has a similar problem.

 

Doesn't sound right to me. How can one instance of hard stopping completely loosen your control arm? Well if it doesn't pull anymore and drives right I guess it's fixed. Probably still should pay attention to brake temperature just in case

 

I have seen that before. I hope that your "mechanic" tightened it while on the alignment rack rather than in just some random spot within the slots provided for alignment!